CSU EASES RESTRICTION ON STUDYING IN MEXICO

Academic program suspended out of fear of violence to be relaxed in regions deemed safe

Six years after concerns about student safety prompted the California State University System to suspend programs in Mexico, the chancellor’s office has announced that it is relaxing its policy in areas of the country considered safe for travel by the U.S. State Department.

“We look forward to re-establishing and strengthening our partnerships in Mexico in the coming months,” Chancellor Timothy White wrote in a letter last week to California Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez.

The chancellor’s office in 2007 instituted a ban on study-abroad programs in countries where the U.S. State Department has issued a travel warning, including Mexico, but allowed for exceptions with the chancellor’s approval. No CSU academic programs have operated in Mexico since 2011, said Michael Uhlenkamp, a spokesman for the chancellor’s office.

Last September, California legislators petitioned Charles Reed, then-CSU chancellor, to reinstate education abroad in Mexico in light of an updated State Department travel warning that distinguished among different regions in Mexico.

White said in his March 6 letter that “while violence continues (in Mexico), it has declined over the past year and is unevenly distributed geographically.”

White said that “my staff will evaluate, on a case-by-case basis, requests for student programs and academic-based travel in Mexico to areas that do not have an advisory in effect.”

Alan Sweedler, assistant vice president of international programs at San Diego State, said the change opens new opportunities for studies in Mexico.

“SDSU is never going to do anything that endangers students, but this gives us the possibility to look at places in Mexico that are deemed safe to allow us to apply for an exemption,” he said.

The move was applauded by Mexico’s Foreign Ministry, which issued a statement Sunday, saying “the policy will have a positive impact on the bilateral cooperation on educational issues.”